ISFA U13 Round 4 - Saturday 4 December
The 1st XI run out for this last 16 encounter at home against Shrewsbury House, on the hallowed turf of Bailey, with KO at 1400 on Saturday 4 December. Good luck Pilgrims!
Rugby v Horris Hill
Also on Saturday will be rugby with Horris Hill for boys in Years 5 and up. Further details are on SOCS. There will also be Games for seniors with collection at 1530.
Match tea for all parents and players will be on the playing fields following the matches. Players will then be free to sign out once they have got changed.
U13s work on the tackle and rucking positions
U12s practise their tackling technique
And what a difference a day makes! Year 6 worked on their hockey in PE on the Winchester College astro turf in distinctly more wintry conditions the previous day...
Sporty Book Week
I’ve always enjoyed reading and, as a lad, enjoyed my fair share of sporty books. Thinking back, there were football stories by Michael Hardcastle, the covers adorned with action shots of players in kit from the seventies and eighties, although I’m sure they must have been brought up to date now!
I remember enjoying this book when I became an avid American Football fan as a kid. I liked its cover photo of Joe Montana, the quarterback, in action and with the San Francisco 49ers being the team of the nineties, I’d certainly jumped on that bandwagon as a glory-hunting 49ers fan!
This, and the Hardcastle books, were all entertaining stories, with the sport in question being used as a vehicle for social issues like navigating change and relationships.
More recently, our family has discovered another football series. Ultimate Football Heroes are biographies written by Tom Oldfield. Each book covers a player’s life to this point - they’re usually still playing – and are inspirational stories of how they have got to where they are today. As well as these, my son and I have been sharing Eddie Jones’ autobiography!
If its inspirational figures we’re after, this excerpt about a character from nearly a century ago in The History of the British Lions by Clem Thomas is astounding:
"The team also included the remarkable all-rounder Stanley Harris who declined an invitation to train for the Olympics in 1920 in order to concentrate on rugby. He was a fine wing, who was actually playing for Pirates in Johannesburg when he was chosen for the 1924 Lions tour. He spent most of his life in South Africa, where he won the amateur light-heavyweight championship, and represented South Africa in the Davis Cup. This Boy’s Own hero was wounded as a gunnery officer in World War I and, while recuperating, took up dancing and reached the finals of the World Ballroom Dancing Championships. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese in World War II and worked on the Death railway in Siam. Colonel Stanley Harris CBE also won the All England mixed doubles tennis championship and played water polo for England."
That’s a Saturday’s telly there – Autumn Internationals and Strictly all rolled into one....
Andrew Short
